Birth of the Titania
by I.-.-.I Kuroyagi I.-.-.I
Summary: The time for her Initiation is nigh. The time for her to meet her destiny draws closer with each day and despite what her mind thinks or believes, she is powerless to change it. Lucky her, she is not alone. His help will be the catalyst needed to make her what everyone hopes her to be, including him. How many trials will it take for the young Erza to reach her position as Queen?
1. Faithful Day

**Disclaimer: Perhaps… I own something? Nah, I don't.**

* * *

 **Birth of the Titania**

 **Chapter 1: Faithful Day**

* * *

Wizards.

Legends speak of them from time to time, calling them bastions of the old lore, masters of ancient arts no normal human should be capable of attaining.

Legends speak of them as figments of imagination, of people's overreaction to natural disasters or of people who witnessed incredible feats being made before then that had no possible explanation.

For that is the very nature of wizards; they are the only ones capable of undoing the very fabric of space and time to make the impossible, possible, and in such way, achieve what their desires scream.

Yet, wizards in the present day do not exist.

Logic, philosophy and science made sure to leave that fact clear.

There are no facts, no reasoning, no explainable way for humans to achieve just a mastery over their surroundings and themselves that would allow them to perform the many feats wizards are said to be capable of accomplishing.

The impossible is impossible because there are no paths beyond it.

Impossible means a dead-end was met at the end of the road and that to advance, another path must be taken.

Still, isn't that a wizard's very nature? To undo that dead-end and see what lies beyond the blocked path?

Wizards in the present day do not exist, that's what society believes to be so.

But what if it is only their lack of sight that forbids them from noticing the truth?

What if wizards are not just figments of some people's overreaction or imagination?

What if wizards walk among us? Living lives as normal as ours?

What if wizards truly do exist?

It's impossible, right?

Then again, it is in the wizards' very nature to make the impossible, possible.

Could it be that…?

* * *

 _I.-.-.I Rosemary I.-.-.I_

 _I.-.-.I Early Morning I.-.-.I_

The spring of the 18th year since her birth was not a different season to her or remarkable in any sense.

Nothing noteworthy of it from its seventeen antecessors aside the sudden wave of heat hitting the town in which she lived. A wave as powerful as those on only felt during summer at its worst.

' _Ugh… if only there were some clouds… or a small breeze.'_ She thought as she made her way down the street, walking with the rest of the student body towards the school that morning. Carrying her bag with one hand while the other adjusted the collar of her uniform. The heat was just unbearable. _'I don't know how the others are holding it together like they are.'_

It was true.

From what she could see, everyone else around her was perfectly fine.

Chatting with fellow classmates, just walking or catching up with some late subjects.

None of them showed to be worn or bothered by the intense heat.

' _I demand an explanation for this.'_ Was her last thought as she entered the school grounds at the same time the bell rung across the campus, signaling everyone to hurry their pace and get to their classrooms before the homeroom teachers made their appearances.

She went to her locker, changed her shoes and made a short run to the classroom in the second floor, noting with some distress that the halls were empty by now. Everyone surely reached their assigned rooms earlier than her. Was it perhaps because her pace was slowed by the heat?

She didn't know and couldn't care less.

Her classroom was closer now. She only had to run to the end of the corridor, turn left, and after two more classrooms, she'd be safe…

…that is, if it weren't because she bumped someone when turning left on said corridor.

"O-ouf…!" Falling on her butt and letting her things fall to the ground, only a grunt was the only thing she could hear from the person she crashed against. "W-what the…? Oh… hey…"

Closing her eyes and focusing on subduing the pain she was feeling, aside the heat, she barely managed to hear the person addressing her.

"…hey, you alright?" Until said person tried to get a response from her again.

"Y-yeah, I'm-" Opening her eyes to catch a glance of the person she crashed against, conjuring some kind of apology for bumping it initially when she shouldn't have been running in the corridors in the first place, her words were caught in her throat at the sight. "…"

"Hey, answer me." The boy in front of her looked to be as old as her, probably a little younger. He wore the same uniform as the rest of the male students of the school, with a scarf of scaled design tied neatly around his neck. A wristwatch in his left wrist and a pink wristband in his right. His eyes were of a pitch black, almost onyx like, and slanted. But none of these things were the ones to close her mouth shut as it had. "…hey."

His hair.

Aside being spiky, with strands standing towards any and all directions, it was of an unnatural color, one which she had never seen before in her life.

It was rose, pink, to put it more simply.

"…pink?" She finally muttered and, unfortunately (?) enough, it was loud enough for the strange looking boy to hear it.

"…pink? You mean my hair?" The boy asked confusedly, blinking at the girl for a few second before realization struck him. He brought a hand to his hair with a smile and got to explaining, even though he didn't need or had to. "Oh yeah… it's natural, don't worry."

She blinked in surprise. "You mean you didn't dye it?"

He blinked and titled his head in confusion. " _Dye it_? Why? It's fine like this."

She shook her head, getting his misunderstanding. "No… I mean… it really is your natural hair color?"

He nodded with a bright grin, crossing his arms as if boasting. "Yup! From root to the end, it's all natural!"

"Ah…" Was her answer and the two remained quiet, staring at the other. She with her eyes and mind trying to discern why the boy's appearance brought her to a halt and he with his smile and confident posture waiting for her to say something else.

That is, until a few minutes passed and his smile started to diminish, all the way down until he released a disappointed sigh. "…so you don't remember me, huh?"

That sparked a reaction from her. "Remember you?"

"Yeah… I thought you would… but…" He seemed seriously down about this, if what she was seeing from his reaction was anything to go by. He shoved a hand inside his pocket, scratched the back of his head and looked to the side with a forlorn look in his eyes, which were now narrowing in thinking. He whispered something to himself that she didn't manage to catch. "Perhaps I was hoping too much?"

"Eh?" She titled her head to the side and looked at him questioningly. Did she know him from somewhere? She had a pretty good memory so, if the boy was someone she knew or had known in the past, she was sure to be capable of remembering him after such a conversation. And his hair. She was sure anyone would be capable to remember someone with such rare hair color. "We've met before…? Erh…?"

"Oh!" At this, the boy snapped out of his trance state and looked at her again, sporting his bright grin again as if nothing had ever happened. He pulled his hand out of his pocket a held it forward, open for a handshake while introducing himself. "That's right, we've met before… the name's-"

"Uh-hum!" His introduction was cut-short by someone standing to their side, a looming black shadow that none of the two had managed to notice until this one made itself known with a loud clearing of throat that made both students freeze on the spot. "I apologize for interrupting this… _heartwarming_ conversation, but classes have already started, Scarlet-san."

Turning their necks to the source of the voice, one the girl called Scarlet knew all too well, what they found was an old man clad in a brown suit. With gray hair and beard, his eyes seemed to be permanently closed but still be capable of glaring both teenagers down.

The elder cleared his throat again and both straightened up their postures in attention. "Did you hear me, Scarlet-san?"

"Y-yea – I mean, yes, Rob-sensei! I'm sorry!" Kneeling to pick up her briefcase from the tiled floors, the girl made a quick bow to the teacher in apology and ran as fast as she could to her classroom.

"H-hey! Wait!" Completely forgetting the other teen that was with her back there. The young man only held his hand out as if trying to catch her but made no other move whatsoever. It was like his feet were glued to the ground by a strange force he could not fathom and forbade him from going after the girl.

She was no stranger to him. He still remembered her as if it had all happened yesterday.

Her methodic ways, her strong voice, the way her legs strode when she walked.

Her brown eyes, of an almost chestnut pigmentation.

And her hair.

Her scarlet red hair, flowing all the way down to her waist.

How he could remember her was a mystery.

But even more so, why she couldn't remember him was a greater one.

' _Did something happen?'_ He thought as his hand returned, almost lifelessly, to his side and he continued to stare at the shadow of her memory down the hallway. _'Why doesn't she remember me?'_

"Her memories were sealed the night of her 18th birthday." The old teacher's voice brought him back to reality. "Her memories of you and the others, at least."

The temperature of the hallway seemed to rise all of the sudden.

"What!?" Turning around with eyes of anger and clenched teeth showing sharp canines, the pink-haired youngster glared at the teacher that gave him the answer to his internal questions. Did he hear it right? "Sealed!? Why!?"

"She's going through her initiation that is why." Rob stated calmly, paying no heed to the glaring eyes of the boy or his aggressive stance. He walked a few steps forward to stand next to the boy with his hands behind his back and looked at the door that lead to the young girl both of them were talking about. "Unlike any of us, her power is manifesting at a stronger, faster rate… if she had kept her memories of back then, she wouldn't have been here today."

"Are you serious!?" The boy asked incredulously, still keeping his anger as he continued the conversation. What he was hearing didn't make any sense! Something like that should not be possible! Not unless she – his eyes widened. "You mean she's-!"

The old man nodded grimly, feeling even older for some unknown reason. "She is going to be the next… after her powers grow stronger and she finally learns how to control them… _he_ will appear again and take it all for himself."

Anger and heat rose even higher around the boy, who now turned around in a more neutral posture to look in the same direction as the old man. "Is that why I was told to come here?"

"Yes, it is." Rob nodded grimly again and sighed, walking slowly towards the eyed classroom at the end of the hallway with the young man following. Both ruminating through the subject in their minds with tight expressions. "You mastered your power last year… and even stood against _him_ and won. Us, elders, think it will even her odds if you teach her how to master her power and how to defeat _him_. Despite our reservations, that is."

' _And here I thought the restriction was lifted… dammit!'_ Hiding his thoughts but not his anger, the pink-haired boy stopped and looked at the old man straight in the eyes, a question burning itself deep inside his mind. "How much time do you think I have?"

Stopping the walk and meeting the boy's eyes, Rob brought a hand to his chin and looked up in thinking before casting his eyes towards a specific classroom again. It seemed as if he were seeing beyond the walls, the doors, the windows, the furniture and people in the way, fixating his gaze on the person of interest.

"I believe you have three months at most; her powers continue to grow despite our countermeasures and if she doesn't learn how to control them before that time, she will succumb to them and die from the pressure." He lifted a finger and pointed to the world outside, to the pristine, fresh day they were having. "She has already showed signs of fatigue, if you had looked beyond the pretty eyes and alluring hair."

A vein popped on the teen's forehead. "Oi!"

Rob ignored him and continued.

"She has been complaining of intense heat despite the cool temperature we've been having in this town." The old man shoved his hands inside his suit's pockets and sighed again, now slumping his whole posture in the process. "We thought that by sealing her memories, we would halt the whole process or maybe let her experiment a more normal initiation… but it looks like she will have a power that can even surpass that of us elders."

Black eyes widened at the statement. "For reals!?"

"Yes, _for reals_." Resuming his walk, the old man took a deep amount of air and exhaled it all in one go, rubbing his forehead before delivering the last piece given of information. "We estimate her power will be as great as that of our ancestors… if not stronger… it might even be stronger than that of _him_ but far more gentle," he threw a side-glance to the boy. "If she is taught correctly, of course."

The boy muttered a few words under his breath.

"Are you listening to me, Dragneel?" Rob asked loud enough for the boy to hear, now stopping outside the classroom they were heading to and keeping his hand reading to slide the door open at any second. "Your orders are to inform her of her heritage, train her in the use of her power and nothing else."

No answer.

"Dragneel, you better do what you were told and leave as soon as you do." The old man told harshly, glaring at the young man with half-lidded eyes, letting a pair of eyes as black as those of youngster visible. He sounded angry, annoyed even, but Dragneel could hear some empathy laced in the undertone. "You know as well as I that the two of you cannot be within range of the other for too long... it's dangerous for everyone, not just you two."

' _I've been told that a thousand times.'_ Dragneel sighed deeply after another few muttering words in a low voice, looking at the door in front of him with some regret. "Got it, old man."

"Good, then, shall we introduce you to the others?" Rob asked immediately, changing the subject swiftly and sliding the door to the classroom open, with him stepping in first. "Mission or not, you still have to attend school."

Another sigh, this time followed with a groan and the pink-haired boy sighed again. "Yeah yeah, I know."

 **To be continued.**


	2. Introductions

**Disclaimer: Perhaps… I own something? Nah, I don't.**

* * *

 **Birth of the Titania**

 **Chapter 2: Introductions**

* * *

 _I.-.-.I Rosemary's High-school I.-.-.I_

 _I.-.-.I Midday I.-.-.I_

* * *

Presenting himself to the rest of the class was not hard in the young boy's opinion.

Nothing he should be worried about or even fazed with since it hadn't been the first time he had done so.

Travelling around the world to attend to issues like the one he had to attend in Rosemary had made him a pretty open and confident young man, one who would not yield to a simple presentation in front of a classroom full of curious eyes and teenagers.

With old man Rob's help, who explained his circumstances, he only had to write his name in the blackboard, turn around, bow and tell his name aloud for the class. Of course, a bit of himself was added, like his preference for spicy food or how he hoped to be in good terms with everyone until he had to leave again.

Why would he leave again?

His name was Natsu Dragneel and, despite what the boys and girls in the classroom thought, the young man was originally from Rosemary. Since his parents worked overseas and moved around a lot, he left the town at an early age, without even spending middle school there. He travelled with them since then, moving from town or city to the next, spending years, months or at times only weeks in his assigned middle/high schools. Not making many friends or settling down completely.

But now that he was older, almost about to take the last step into adulthood, his parents saw fit that he had some reprieve for once. And so it was decided to leave him in the small town that was his birthplace, living with his father's sister so that he could be allowed to spend his last year of high school normally, without having to send him to some other place after a few months… or even weeks.

That, of course, was a faux story, most of it was at least made up to serve as background for the curious eyes.

In reality, he had come to town to ensure the safe initiation of a young woman, train her the best he could in the power she had inherited from her parents and prepare her to face one of the many dangers that her new life would throw at her. Sure, he was living with a relative of his real family and sure, he usually moved around a lot, but the rest was mostly a cover for what he really had to do there in his old but cozy hometown.

' _Now… how should I confront her about it?'_ Was his initial thought once the introduction was over and he was told to take a seat in one of the many desks of the classroom, choosing to be at the bottom row in the middle, where he could oversee everything. Especially the scarlet-haired girl sitting just four rows ahead that he was currently looking at with his whole attention. _'Recess? After school? Ask her out and tell her then?'_

"Hey… check it out."

"Yeah, he's looking straight at Scarlet-san."

"Wow, dude moves fast now, doesn't he?"

"Heh, he's in for a surprise."

' _Okay, this would be a lot more easy if there weren't gossiping brats around.'_ Natsu thought in irritation, looking away from his target with a hand covering his face and clenching teeth. Oh, how he hates gossip and the like. It always made him go ballistic in the past and it wasn't any different now. Except of course, that he couldn't freely go ballistic as he always did. _'But nothing I can do about it… these brats are all normal humans… I cannot scorch them or even punch them… dammit!'_

If he could only yell at them, leave them deaf for a few minutes…

That would be soooo great.

" _Don't do anything rash now, okay?_ " Rob whispered to him, calling the attention of the young man who didn't sense the old man approaching. Looking up, the teacher was standing upright with his eyes fixed on the pages of a book he held with one his left hand.

" _Okay okay! Jeez!_ " The boy whispered back in exasperation, deciding to ignore it all and bury his face in the small pillow made by his crossed forearms. Waiting for the whole set of lessons to end, for the torture to finish so that he could return to his most important matters.

He tried to spy on her form from the top of his arms, doing so as stealthily as possible to not attract the attention of his gossiping new classmates. _'If only she remembered me… that would make things a lot easier.'_

Time flew like the wind of the highest mountains and before he knew it, the bell for the first recess rung loudly across the campus.

"Yush! Finally some time off!" The roar was so loud that everyone inside the room turned around as one to see him perched on top of the desk with a victorious fist held high in the air. That came out by instinct alone, probably and impulse, which wasn't rare in him. Hence his lack of reaction when the others started to laugh or chuckle at his antics. "I can't believe only a few hours passed! It felt like forever!"

"You sure are an energetic person, Natsu-san." A voice told him with a light chuckle and looking down, he found his targ – I mean, his fellow classmate of scarlet hair standing a few steps away from his desk, gazing at his exaggerated pose with amusement in her eyes. "I take it you don't like school that much?"

"That's right! I don't! I'd rather spend my time napping some place around than listening to old man Rob and his lecture." Said the boy while hopping down the desk and landing with a soft movement, shoving his hands inside his pockets and looking at the girl of scarlet hair with a questioning eyebrow raising. His posture was carefree, almost lazy, and his expression only held a small smile as he caught others watching their exchange from the corner of his eyes. "And what's this? Natsu _-san_? I thought we were closer than that when we talked in the hallway."

Oh, of course he voiced it out loud, enough for those impertinent eavesdroppers to hear.

This was payback for those ' _he doesn't stand a chance_ ' comments.

Yes, he was prideful like that.

"Wha-what!?" Still, he should have picked another person to be playful like that, if the flustered expression and blush on the girl's face was anything to go by. Right now, he could tell she wasn't good with being the center of attention like that, and even less with matters such as this. She was probably very embarrassed right now. "T-that was…! I didn't mean to -!"

"Heard that!?"

"Yeah I did! They knew each other!"

"Wow! The new guy's friends with Scarlet-san?"

"Who would've guessed?"

' _Yes, you idiots! That'll teach you to go and gossip about stuff you don't know!'_ Natsu stood triumphantly at what he could hear all around him, his smile growing with each comment he heard until it was a full grin from ear to ear. Taking his hands out of his pockets, he threw them back and rested them behind his head, waiting for the commotion to die down so he could –

"C-come with me for a second." Scarlet took hold of his shirt and dragged him outside before he could finish his gloating, holding her face down to avoid anyone from seeing her current expression, even the pink-haired boy, who only stared at her in cluelessness and followed suit.

* * *

 _I.-.-.I Rosemary's High-school I.-.-.I_

 _I.-.-.I Back of the campus I.-.-.I_

She took him outside, down the hallway, to the right, then the stairs, a few more corridors and then the back of the campus, where many people could be seen gathered doing a variety of activities ranging from simple relaxation to eating together before the bell rung again.

"Uh… where're we going?" Natsu asked carefully once he saw they were out of sight from any possible person, be it students or teachers. From what he could gather, they were at the back of the campus, at the side of a building that looked like the gymnasium and under the shade of some trees. A pretty private and pretty awkward place to be just the two of them. "Scarlet?"

There she stopped, keeping her back to him and her head hung low. "…Erza."

He quirked an eyebrow, almost not hearing what she said. "Uh?"

"I said my name's Erza, Natsu…-san." She repeated with a more complete and intelligent sentence, turning around slowly with a stern face that still sported a bit of red in the cheeks. Though it was almost invisible under the shade. "And I'd appreciate it a lot if you weren't so casual about… o-our meeting this morning."

' _What with this shy attitude?'_ Natsu titled his head to the side in confusion; she was way too different from how he remembered her to be. _'Does it have something to do with the sealing Rob talked about?'_

"D-don't misunderstand or anything, it's not like I hate you or dislike you because of that little scene back in the classroom," she continued, despite his lack of attention to what she was saying now. "But I just cannot stand people looking at me… lots of people, I mean."

' _Yup, totally different.'_ He held his gaze and remained quiet, unnerving the girl with his fixed staring. He remembered her to be more forward in the past, less shy and more impulsive, sometimes reckless. Now she was like a leashed dog, no offense. _'She's like a totally different person… more subdued…'_

' _What the hell is wrong with this man!? Is he even paying attention!?'_ Erza, not hearing anything from him and getting fed up with his silent staring, kicked him in the shin. She was far too flustered about the whole issue to let it slide so easily. The heat of the day wasn't helping her either. "Hey! Are you listening to anything I'm saying!?"

"Ow! Oooooow!" The reaction was immediate; the young man snapped out of his reverie and held his aching shin with both hands while jumping around with the unhurt leg. Small tears could be seen forming around the edges of his eyes when he stopped, pointed a finger at the aggressive girl and growled out his complain. "H-hey! What's that for!?"

"You weren't paying attention!" She retorted.

"And a kick's the best solution!?" He now stood on his two feet.

"For someone so out of it! Yes!" She countered and he growled, clenching his teeth tightly as he tried to come up with some kind of reply to that. He was too late. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned to the left, closing her eyes in a high-and-mighty manner. "If someone's talking to you about something private, the least you can do is listen to it."

Oh, how he wished to yell at her that a kick was still not the best choice but he relented, looking down and grumbling incoherent words that made no sense, even to him.

"Sorry, okay… I was just thinking about how different you're from before." Natsu said in the end, dropping his arms to the sides and standing upright, despite the bits of pain he felt in his shin. What he said seemed to catch the attention of the scarlet-haired girl, for she turned to face him again with a confused face. He looked down and closed his eyes. _'Perhaps it'll be better if I take this chance and tell her before any more problems come knocking.'_

"How different I am? From before?" Erza questioned, thinking that he was referring about their early encounter in the hallway. She frowned. _'Another guy misunderstanding politeness for something else.'_ She sighed and got her stern face back into action. "Okay! I was wrong there, I shouldn't have run in the hallway but -!"

The pink-haired boy raised a hand to stop her ranting.

"No, I mean… from before… way before." Natsu rose his head to look at her in the eyes and made the most serious face his muscles could conjure, doing his best to deliver the message clearly enough to be taken seriously. _'It might be best if I show her… that might spark some memories to return.'_ "You might not remember me but we've met before… years ago, when we were both kids."

' _Years ago? When we were kids, he says?'_ Erza's frown changed to a blank expression; something was starting to bother her at the back of her mind. She flinched at the sudden whiteness around her eyes and blinked repeatedly, trying to keep her posture straight in front of the mysterious new student talking to her. "U-uh? W-what do you -?"

What he did next made her dizziness worsen.

The heat she experienced in the past few days were nothing compared to what was now burning before her.

"I mean this, Erza." Sparks flying left and right, dancing flames enveloping a single figure in the middle. The shade of the trees vanished from the place and the scarlet-haired girl found herself in front of a burning man whose bright fire lighted her whole front. Natsu stood in the middle of the fire he summoned to send his point across and raised a single hand with its palm open upwards, holding a small flame in it as he spoke. "We're both wizards, Erza… or should be. I'm in charge of training you from this day onwards… and I -"

Before he could finish his introduction, the girl's head did a 180 with her sight turning completely white.

"- Erza?"

The heat she felt got worse, worse enough to force her consciousness into shut down.

"Hey! Get a grip of yourself!"

Such was the strain in her as a whole that, in front of the flaming Natsu, she passed out.

"Erza!"

 **To be continued.**


	3. Failed Scouting

**Disclaimer: Perhaps… I own something? Nah, I don't.**

* * *

 **Birth of the Titania**

 **Chapter 3: Failed Scouting**

* * *

 _I.-.-.I Rosemary's High-school I.-.-.I_

 _I.-.-.I Afternoon I.-.-.I_

Sighing for what seemed like the hundredth time that hour, the old man clad in a brown suit could only stand at the end of the bed with his arms folded over his chest. Glaring daggers at the teen sitting next to the bed while also sending soft, worried glances to the person sleeping in the bed itself.

"You couldn't have been more reckless, Dragneel." Rob scolded the boy again, venting his irritation on the boy now that it was still present. It never did any good to hold back one's feelings. Especially in the case of people like them. "I told you she was under pressure. Forcing her memories by making a stupid display of power… here I thought we could trust you to do the job right."

"Just… shut it, old man." Natsu muttered under his breath, sending a tired glare in the old man's direction. "None of this would've happened if you hags had called me when she showed the signs last year."

The old man opened one eye to make his glare more potent. "Last year you were an initiated as well, Dragneel, don't act so arrogantly."

"Then New Year's! Or a month before her birthday! I was over with my initiation by then, you could've called me then!" The boy yelled heatedly, worry lacing with every single word he spoke before noticing the loudness of it. He closed his mouth and looked down, over his shoulder to the sleeping girl in the bed of the school's infirmary. "Anything would've been better than just sealing her memories."

"You are right in that, but there was no other choice." Closing his eye and raising a finger to stop the young man from entering another yelling rant, Rob started to explain the situation to him. "And we did call you, Dragneel, we did look for your help to ensure she doesn't die to her power… the problem was that you had no idea about how to train someone like her in the first place."

' _Yeah right… like I would believe something like that.'_ Natsu's eyes narrowed as his mind recalled what he was doing while the sealing of the girl's memories occurred. He was called by the elders to study, prepare his mind to take the examinations that would shape him from a rookie to a wizard capable of – his eyes widened and moved to stare at the pensive old man. "You mean that those months of training were for this!?"

"Yes… they were for the safe training of a new but highly unstable initiate." Sighing again at feeling the boy glaring for what he was about to say, Rob shook his head and decided to put the matter to rest. It was enough of playing the blame game. "Listen… once she recovers, depending on the state of her memories, you'll train her accordingly. If she does remember you or anything from her past, well, that might make things easier."

The pink-haired boy turned his gaze to the sleeping Erza. "And if she doesn't?"

"If she doesn't, don't try anything stupid again and just focus your mind in doing the job you were called to do." The teacher shrugged and turned around, heading straight for the door. Once in front of it, he looked over his shoulder at the picture of the two youngsters and later down, to his own shoes. He inhaled deeply and exhaled in the same manner, whispering words that were meant for no one present in the room. " _Putting our feelings aside is at times the best choice we have._ "

And he left.

' _Focus, huh?'_ Natsu returned to his seat by the side of the bed, resting his elbows over his legs and joining his hands in between his knees. Keeping his eyes glued to the girl whose temperature was still high, steady in a kind of warmth he could barely feel thanks to his own power. It really was baffling to see her so changed after these many years; he always thought she would be one of the few to change the less over the years, probably master her own powers before any of the kids that lived together in that same town a decade ago. Master it earlier than him. _'Easier said than done.'_

Erza shifted in her sleep and the pink-haired boy straightened up to attention, leaning forward to check if her eyes were opening or if she just – yes, she only shifted her position in the bed. Her temperature seemed unchanged and her breathing was almost labored, but he knew that it was nothing he should worry about.

' _I'm no doctor but as a wizard I can tell her condition is not as bad as it looks.'_ Standing up and sitting by her side on the bed, he moved his hand and slowly placed it on her forehead, with his fingers pushing some strands of hair out of the way. He closed his eyes in a way that seemed practiced and concentrated in something beyond the form, far too deep for any normal person to notice.

* * *

 _I.-.-.I Erza's Soul I.-.-.I_

 _I.-.-.I Depths of the First Origin I.-.-.I_

It felt like a fall.

A long, bottomless fall that had no end in sight.

' _I just need to stay focused a little longer and… yes, that's it.'_ His feet touched a flat surface after what seemed like hours of descending without end, letting him know that it was okay to open his eyes again and witness what lay at the bottom of the pit.

He did so.

They grew in size three times at what they saw.

'… _okay, now I understand why the oldies were so worried.'_ What greeted his eyes was the reason for his calling, for the girl's fatigue and sealing of memories. It looked like the sun itself, if he were to put it simply, but more than that, it looked like a mass of white fire ready to unleash its holy fury upon everything and anything in its path. _'Thank whatever brains they have left for the seal they placed on this freakin' thing!'_

Chains held the unstable sphere of white fire from all directions, ranging from vertical to diagonal and horizontal, and kept it in place in that depth that could be called the girl's soul.

' _Pink… purple… orange… green… blue… yellow…?'_ Counting up the number of chains and their distinct colors, the young man felt surprise taking him again. _'What the hell is this? This thing's being chained by the powers of most of the elders, if not all!'_

"Is her power truly this frightening?" Natsu wondered out loud, taking one step forward and then another, until he eventually found himself walking around the power of the young woman with his eyes taking on every detail and his mind working out the reasons for such a thing to exist. He might be slow, maybe a little dumb, but he knew enough about this to try and find an explanation. "Right now, its size is like that of a garbage truck and some more… it doesn't seem to be harmful, though."

He stopped by what he supposed was the front and raised his right arm, looking at it with a blank expression before moving it to be only a meter away from the sphere of contained magic.

"This's the most stupid thing I've ever thought of doing… it can probably the dumbest from my whole life…" The pink-haired man closed his eyes and concentrated all of his energy in his raised arm. "But I gotta do it and see why the hell she's reacting so badly when so many seals have been placed around her."

He wasn't looking for fire like the one in front.

Fire, yes, not white as that he was facing but equally strong.

Red flames of orange undertone, capable of burning it all and still look beautiful to the sight.

"Okay," he opened his eyes and his arm was now surrounded by a blue-ish aura, revealing his preparations to be complete. It's a pretty difficult task to call one's powers into action when only having your consciousness inside someone's soul. It needed concentration, lots of it, so that the consciousness could draw out some power from the original body and channel it inside another's soul. But Natsu managed to do it, and now, he glared at the white sphere of raw power with challenging eyes and grinning teeth. "Let's see what happens when you fight fire with fire!"

The blue-ish aura around his arm changed to an orange one, almost reddish, and later expanded.

And expanded so until it lit completely and enveloped his whole arm in a fierce line of sparks and flames that seemed to have a shine of its own, strong enough to stand against the white sphere sealed by chains.

It really was a sight to behold, alluring to any kind of eye.

But that was not why the young wizard called his own fire into action.

"…nothing's happening." Natsu said after several minutes passed with his hand held aflame in the pit of the girl's soul. Standing face to face to the source of Erza's dormant power, he expected it to react somehow after this, since it did react earlier when he showed his abilities to the girl at the back of the school. But nothing was happening; no shaking, cracking, changing, shaping, nothing. His face twisted in confusion. "Was it all a missed call or she's just sensitive to – what's that?"

Was it him or one of the chains holding the white sphere just creaked?

Not just that, wasn't the orb closer to him? Closer than what it was a minute ago?

"…okay, I swear I saw it moving now." Said the boy after noticing how the sphere grew in size. "And the other chains are creaking too."

More creaks followed by the sphere's growing size; it didn't take a genius to know that what was happening was the worst possible scenario. The sphere was reacting to the fire in the man's arm and was trying to free itself as a result, probably to consume it.

"…crap, I should stop it now – what the hell are you doing!?"

Natsu was going to swat the flames off his arm and let the sphere return to its dormant state but this would have none of that. It moved faster somehow, closer to the pink-haired youngster and swallowed his hand after breaking two of the chains keeping it locked tight.

"Let go of my hand, bastard! I need it!" Yelled the boy as he used the remaining chains around the white sphere as stepping stones and took hold of the sucked hand by the wrist, pulling with his whole strength to set it free. "This's my special hand! I need it for writing, and punching, and touching, and eating, and punching some more! Let go!"

The sphere of raw power paid no heed to his protests.

Instead, it broke the chains he was using to support his legs and…

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! My legs!"

Now, with his two arms and two legs buried deep down to the elbows and knees (respectively), Natsu had every right to be scared and cry for the thing to release him. He knew that death was possible with the kind of life wizards had to endure but he sure as hell wasn't ready to die when he just mastered his abilities a year ago. At least he wanted to fight another strong opponent like the one that challenged him the moment his initiation was over.

"Fuckin' let go of me, you dumb ball of raw magic!" He tried to pull his arms free but his legs sunk lower, all the way to the waist. This wasn't boding well for him. If he let it continue there was a high chance of losing his consciousness to the dormant power of his initiate or worse, losing his powers to her. For a wizard, something like the latter was the most horrible thing that could happen. So… "I told you to LET GO!"

Focusing what remained of is calm mind in the spot where his hands surely were, Natsu channeled the remaining powers he managed to gather from his own soul and allow them to burn the inside of the white sphere, uncaring of whatever it may happen after doing such a thing.

* * *

 _I.-.-.I Rosemary's High-school I.-.-.I_

 _I.-.-.I Late afternoon I.-.-.I_

"W-waaaah!" And fortunately enough, when he tried to pull his body out of the sphere, he found himself falling backwards. Away from the sleeping girl and the infirmary's bed in which she was resting onto the cold floor of the room with his butt receiving most of the impact and the small chair he was using following suit."Ouf!"

Safe and sound, he was.

Well, mostly.

He sure got the scare of his life.

"I swear I'll never do something like that again, ever!" Natsu vowed resolutely as he stood up and dusted his clothes off, making sure he had all of his extremities with him and, more importantly, his magic power intact and still with him. It all seemed to be order, so he grinned mischievously. "Phew… still… that was a close one."

Checking the small infirmary, with special attention to the windows and the landscape outside, he could barely believe it when he saw that the sun was almost hidden in the horizon. Signaling the end of the day.

' _Okay now… it's late from what I can see outside… I should wake her up and… what?'_ The wizard looked towards the sleeping Erza and thought of making a comment about how she couldn't let go of him, simple teasing in repayment for almost killing him with that stunt her dormant power pulled, but he stopped abruptly. _'…what's that?'_

And walked closer.

He needed to take a better look at her.

Because there was something off about her.

Something that was not there the last time he looked.

"…oh shit." Natsu cursed lowly after his feet took him to stand next to the bed again, to see the girl in all her resting glory from above. There was something off about her, alright. Something terribly different about her. "Old man Rob is gonna kill me!"

He was completely sure, as that his scarf was scaled-designed, that she did not have a streak of pink hair running from the front of her hair all the way to the back. Nor did she have what it seemed to be scales around the edges of her face.

"JUST WHAT THE HELL DID I DO!?"

 **To be continued.**

* * *

 **A/N: Aloha, everyone. Been a long while since anything new came up, huh? Nvm. Chapters for this story will come up in sets of three per week. If you have thoughts about them, things like changes, mistakes found or else, let me know. I also welcome ideas for what the future of this story will hold, of course, not radical ideas. I know what I want to do with this story so I will only accept minor-medium ideas.**

 **Enjoy while waiting for the next batch.**


	4. Explanation

**Disclaimer: Perhaps… I own something? Nah, I don't.**

* * *

 **Birth of the Titania**

 **Chapter 4: Explanation**

* * *

 _I.-.-.I Rosemary I.-.-.I_

 _I.-.-.I Evening I.-.-.I_

Calming down after witnessing the side-effects of his freeing maneuver was almost easy, he only had to stop freaking out over what the old teacher/wizard of the school would do to him if he ever found out and it was all back to a simple state of carefreeness.

Or so was what he wanted to believe.

Erza's power absorbed the magic he used inside her soul and, to make matters worse, made it a part of her, forcing several changes to the girl's physique. Which comes to answer as to why the young wizard wasn't as calm as he could be. The girl's dormant power almost sucked him in and made him a part of her but he defended against it and forced his way to freedom by using his own in retaliation, yet, it wasn't all smiles and rainbows.

He was alive and kicking, sure, but there was price to pay for that.

For starters, and the less alarming, the streak of pink hair that now ran from front to back along her scarlet hair. He didn't worry too much about that one, since it could be easily dyed back to the color that it originally was if picked the right shade. Then, to the most distressing, the scales that appeared by the edges of her face, which were alike to those of a lizard or any other reptile in existence, those were not something that could be easily hidden, not even with the most expensive make-up.

The moment she sees herself in a mirror, he was going to get the beating of his life.

Now, to finish his _impending doom_ list, he could only wonder if she was capable of using the same magic as him or if that one aspect remained unchanged. If she happened to be capable of using his power instead of the one she was meant to, the old teacher of Rosemary High was going to have his head. That, he knew all too well. He could almost feel the rage that was about to kill him in the future all the way to the present day.

There were some good news, though.

Thanks to the school's schedules and regulations, Rob was long gone when Natsu managed to pull his consciousness free from Erza's soul, and there was also no one in the school to hear him freaking out. There was also no one to witness Erza's radical change in appearance for when the pink-haired man decided to take her away from the infirmary and to her place, where she would be able to rest easier.

The town was also, as stated, a town. Small in size and with a severe lacking of nightly activities for its citizens, which meant there was not a single person that could bump into him while he carried out his mission/task.

Even so, that didn't mean he shouldn't be careful.

Or freak out a little while he was still trying to bring the girl back to her home.

"I'm so dead, I'm so dead, I'm so dead…" Natsu muttered over and over again to himself as he carried the young woman on his back with a blanket borrowed from the school's infirmary covering the top of her body. He needed to take her back to her place, avoiding any and all that could possibly cross his path by chance in the middle of the obscured, deserted streets. "If old man Rob finds out, I'm dead for sure!"

"U-uh…?" Something moved on his back, groaning a few words to signal a returning consciousness, and he froze in his stride. "W-who is dead?"

' _God hates me, I'm sure he does.'_ Of all possibilities, she just had to wake up before he got to her home. Typical. This almost sounded as some cheesy scene from a soap-opera or novel, or worse, manga. Natsu straightened up, cleared his throat loudly and looked over his shoulder with a small, twitching smile. If he was going to die, he was going to die prepared. "N-no one's dead, Scarlet…-san."

"Scarlet…-san?" Erza repeated drowsily, feeling the weight of the world on her eyelids. For some reason or another, she felt extremely tired, to the point of passing out, and she also found herself being carried somewhere by her new and strange classmate. That last part made her snap a little into attention. "Dragneel…? W-what…? Why…?"

' _Okay, gotta think some excuse right now. If she has to blame someone for the changes in her, God knows it won't be me!'_ Freeing one of his hands from under the girl's thighs, the young man scratched his cheek as he answered. "Uh… you passed out while talking to me at school, remember? The nurse said you had a fever… and old man Rob told me to take you back home."

"…uh? R-really?" In her opinion, the whole day was a blur. She couldn't recall most of what had happened or what she did during the early time of the day. It was surprising she remembered the pink-haired youngster if that was the case. _'How is it that I remember him but not the rest?'_

"Yeah, really… you had us all worried, Scarlet-san." Natsu said as he resumed his walk, adjusting the weight on his back to be comfortable while walking. Still, the pressure he felt against the upper part of his back, that was now moving, made him feel flustered with each step he took. _'She just had to grow in every sense of the word… just my luck.'_

"O-oh… s-sorry for the trouble…" Erza responded shyly, looking down at the young man's shoulder with some trouble. Something made her snap out of her conflict though, something she noticed now that was not there anymore. She looked at her hands and the rest of her body (further flustering the boy), and her eyes widened. "T-the heat! The heat is gone!"

"Uh? Heat?" The pink-haired asked in cluelessness to keep his façade. In his mind, he knew well enough why the girl couldn't feel the heat any longer. _'Granted, she absorbed the abilities of a Fire Wizard… it's pretty obvious that she won't feel that heat anymore.'_

' _Oh right! He doesn't know about it!'_ Looking down nervously at her outburst, the girl took hold of the guy's shoulders and buried her face in his back, mumbling an unconvincing answer. "N-nothing! I-I… I was… talking to myself…?"

Natsu nodded slowly, trying to subdue his flush at the same time. "Eh… r-right…"

Silence enveloped the two teenagers as they made their way down the street, taking in the quiet atmosphere to reflect on their personal issues. While Natsu had yet to think up an excuse or explanation to what the young girl will discover once she looks at herself in a mirror, Erza was wondering other things. Like how she fainted earlier that day and why she couldn't feel the heat from the past months anymore.

If she were to look at it logically, it probably was because of what the young man told her instead of the school's nurse; she had a fever, a pretty bad one, and after resisting it for a month, her body finally gave up and shut her body functions automatically to save her.

But, if she were to put some fantasy into the story, there was another possible explanation to the whole situation. She sort of remembered talking to the pink-haired student earlier that day, just as he said they were, and also passing out during the conversation.

Though there were other facts now coming back to her.

She remembered feeling an extreme heat, worse than the one she felt daily, before passing out.

There was also the vivid image of dancing flames surrounding a shadow.

And the word _'wizard'_ being mentioned at some point.

"Wizard…" Natsu froze again when Erza blurted out the word in between her ruminations. Looking over his shoulder, he could see her gaze lingering in the road ahead while her mind tried to come up with a reason for that word to stick in her memories. "What does it mean?"

' _Okay, I could take this chance and explain everything to her… or just let it all flow and explain when the situation is more… bah! Who am I kiddin'!?'_ Sighing tiredly, Natsu brought his feet into action again, but instead of continuing his assigned road, he changed directions to a park he could see in the distance. "If you truly wanna know what it means, I can… uh… explain."

"…explain?" The scarlet-haired asked curiously, taken aback by the boy's sudden seriousness and how he heard her mutterings. Even more surprising was the fact that the young man knew about it and had some knowledge to explain what was going on through her mind. _'Well… he was there when I passed out… maybe he knows something.'_

* * *

 _I.-.-.I Rosemary I.-.-.I_

 _I.-.-.I West Gate Park I.-.-.I_

Reaching the park was no trouble for the young man, even though he had a person on his back to carry and several blocks walked uphill that could put some strain in his knees or legs. He was trained to resist those pains, make them feel like nothing but a simple mosquito's bite, so he didn't complain when they got to the place, nor did he complain when the girl asked him if he was alright after carrying her for so long.

"A-are you sure you're okay?" Erza asked again, still self-conscious about the whole deal.

"Nah, I'm good, no worries." Natsu replied sheepishly once he carefully let the girl down a bench of the park, taking some steps back and sitting on the ground himself. The action itself made the girl throw him a suspicious look but he waved it away as nothing. "Told you, no worries, I just like the ground better."

Silence enveloped the two and while Erza stared expectantly at the young man of pink hair, said person was staring at the star-filled sky with a pensive look on his face. If words were as easy to use as he heard some of his fellows say, he would not have this sort of problem. Hell, he might have been already done with this whole thing by the afternoon.

But no, he just lacked tact, and that meant his actions earned him more than he bargained for.

Say, one girl passing out.

"Okay, let's start from the top." The pink-haired boy said after a few minutes mulling over the information in his head, dropping his eyes to meet those of his listener. All will be better after a direct approach, or better said, after a direct and clear explanation of everything. He knew now that the girl had something of a hint about what was going on; if he just started from where she had the best clue, he was sure half of his work would already be done. "Listen, Erza… wizards do exist… all around the world and can do most of the things you read, watched and heard they can do."

The young woman tilted her head to the side in slight confusion, some of the memories from before passing out returning. Fire, pressure, something pulsing inside her head and around her. "…they exist?"

"Yes, they do… and they're not that much different from you or me… in fact…" He scratched the back of his head in trouble. This was proving to be harder than he thought. "You and I are wizards, Erza… uh… Scarlet-san…"

' _Is he going through eighth grade syndrome or just a bad liar?'_ Thought Erza after hearing something less than convincing from the person in front of her, not taking a single second in concluding that the new transfer student might have a really wild imagination and was trying to impress her with some unconceivable ideas. She blinked and sighed deeply. "Natsu-san… you don't have to lie… tell me what happened when I passed out."

' _Yup, she thinks I'm lying, what a surprise.'_ Natsu shook his head and looked up to the sky as if saying 'told you so' to someone who was there before looking at the red-haired girl again. He lifted his arm and stretched out his hand as he did earlier that day, rotating the limb to show he wasn't hiding anything and later light it up as if turning on an oven. "Does _this_ click something in your mind?"

His expression was bored, almost apathetic but it changed to shock and awe when something unbelievable happened.

Erza fainted again.

"Oh, you must be fuckin' kidding me!"

 **To be continued.**


	5. Misstep

**Disclaimer: Perhaps… I own something? Nah, I don't.**

* * *

 **Birth of the Titania**

 **Chapter 5: Misstep**

* * *

 _I.-.-.I Rosemary I.-.-.I_

 _I.-.-.I Dawn I.-.-.I_

One term a certain pink-haired youngster never thought he would use could perfectly fit this situation.

But let's do a small recap; Natsu Dragneel came to his old hometown of Rosemary to train one Erza Scarlet in the forgotten arts of Magic, and so far, the training has been disastrous. Why? The student fainted the two times she was told of her heritage.

That's why, the pink-haired youngster called Natsu Dragneel felt like one way in particular right now.

Annoyed beyond belief.

' _Who faints two times the same day?'_ Was the ever-repeating question he made to no one but himself as he followed the rest of the students towards the learning institution… blergh, he is going to school as the previous day. The only problem was that there was no red-haired girl on sight and that was a bad sign for him. _'She probably fainted again after seeing the changes in her… wouldn't surprise me.'_

"Excuse me, young man?" A mysterious individual at one side of the street, more specifically, behind a lamppost was calling for him and motioning for the pink-haired boy to get closer by waving a hand in his direction. "Could you please come here for a second?"

"Hell no." Natsu declared firmly, glaring at the mysterious individual that was freaking out every single student nearby. Who the heck walks around the street with its body covered in bandages from to toe, wearing a beige trench coat and sunglasses? Most importantly, a trench coat? In the middle of Spring? There was no rain prognosticated for the day so this screamed suspicious to all directions. "Go pick another guy to kidnap or something 'cause I'm not going one step-"

The bandaged person growled loudly and made the young man stop his sentence short.

"You dumb, pink-haired brat!"

Wait a minute.

That voice sounded familiar.

"You better get your sorry self here before I beat your lights out and drag you here myself!"

And the threat sounded pretty legitimate too.

'… _on closer inspection…is that red hair comin' from – OH SHIT, IT'S HER!?'_ The mysterious bandaged person raised the sunglasses from its eyes and behind them, Natsu saw Hell in chestnut color, aside some loose strands of a very familiar scarlet-colored hair. It wasn't wrong for him to freeze in place and tremble. Not one bit wrong, I tell you. _'W-what do I do, what do I do, what do I do!?'_

Because of his lack of reaction, or any kind of movement whatsoever, Erza Scarlet -yes, the mysterious person in bandages was Erza- was forced to leave her hideout behind the lamppost, cross the street and drag the frozen pink-haired youngster to a more secluded location. All while being followed by the inquisitive eyes of the rest of the student body.

Of course, it didn't take long for everyone to just shrug the issue as an anomaly of their peaceful, almost boring days in Rosemary and move on towards the task of attending school, listen to the lectures, get good grades, make some memories and then graduate. Meh, boring. But not all the students followed that train of thought.

' _Oh, the new student~?'_

' _What is she up to now?'_

' _Tsk… not my problem.'_

Now back to what is of our interest.

Erza dragged the frozen pink-haired to the park he took her to the night before and threw the young man to the fountain in the middle of the place. Not bothering one bit about his complaints of almost drowning or how water could be harmful for him because of his power. She was far too busy taking off her trench coat and sunglasses, aside unwrapping the bandages keeping her identity hidden.

"Seriously! A slap would've been-" He got slapped as he requested. "IT WAS A MANNER OF SPEECH, FUCKIN' DAMMIT!"

"Stop cursing or I swear the next thing will be a kick and you know where it'll be." Erza threatened sharply, narrowing her eyes at the mass of nerves that was cowering and protecting his crotch before her. She shook her head at the pitiful sight and later pointed at the noticeable differences in her appearance. Namely the strand of hair that was now pink and the scales at the sides of her face, which now were almost all over her body except for her face. "You have one minute to explain what the heck you did while I was unconscious or there'll be punishment."

Natsu could only do three things at the suddenness of everything just now.

First; wonder if the girl got her memories back. She looked and sounded a lot more like he remembered her to be.

Second; freak out for the imminent danger that could befall his crotch if he didn't hurry in answering.

And third; freak out even more at seeing that now it wasn't just the sides of her face the ones with scales, but all of her body too.

It was all too much to take in, digest and later give a reasonable explanation of. He needed some time to think about it all before giving half-assed answers to a very pissed off and volatile person like the red-haired girl in front of him. "…e-eh, this might take longer than a minute to explain, so could you-"

Erza's eyes narrowed even more, they were almost slits now. "Forty seconds left."

' _Eeeeeeeeek! She's as scary as she was back then!'_ Natsu lost all color from his face and immediately started to think of possible answers for this predicament. But since panic was pretty much ruling every single part of his body, he started to throw every single thing that came to his mind like a machinegun. "You fainted yesterday and I was wondering why so I got inside you and-!"

"INSIDE ME!?" Right now, a good question would be if her hair managed to change the color of the rest of her body to red but then again, maybe she was red of embarrassment at what the pink-haired exchange student said.

"And found out your power was sealed inside your soul so I broke it free accidentally and then it absorbed my magic and since my magic is about-!" A punch to the face stopped his desperate ranting and actually knocked him out.

Atta girl.

"…if he did anything like… _that_ …I swear he can say goodbye to his private friend!" Erza panted and panted as she tried to regain her natural skin-color, also waving her hand a little to get rid of the numbness it got from punching such a hard-headed fellow. She looked down at herself and tried to feel -mentally, not with her hands, you perverts- if anything in her sacred area was any different. _'…it feels like always? But then… why did he-?'_

"Oh~? Knocking out the new guy in his second day already?" A cheery voice chirped next to her ear, making her jump several meters away in surprise. The intruder giggled at the sight of the almost-always composed red-haired girl and tilted its head to a side cutely, the hints of a sweet smile reflecting themselves in the eyes of its listener. "Did I scare you~? Sorry if I did."

' _Always butting in where no one called you.'_ Regaining her composure, along her stern façade, Erza looked to the side and crossed her arms under her chest, forgetting for an instant about her changed appearance. "Of course you didn't, your voice was too loud that's all."

"Acting tough, aren't you?" The intruder giggled again, a bit more loudly this time to mock the red-head and later changed its point of focus on the downed exchange student whose nose was bleeding. "Hmmm, his face seems familiar somehow… is he-?"

"He is Natsu Dragneel, joined the school yesterday and no, he's not my boyfriend or anything like that." Erza answered without even listening to the full question, already feeling the gist of where the conversation was going. Maybe that would be enough to shut up this nosy intruder and earn her some peace for a change.

Instead, another giggle, this time louder and more mocking than the last one, was all she got.

"What are you giggling on about!?" Asked the flustered red-haired girl, feeling the last bits of her restraint edging away. This person was seriously infuriating when it wanted to be.

"Nothing, nothing~! Just about your assumption there." The intruder tilted its head to the side and smiled sweetly again, doing so on purpose since it knew it annoyed the girl to no end. "You thought I was asking something like _'is he your boyfriend?'_ or _'is he going out with you?'_ , right? Sorry but that wasn't my question, Erza~!"

If what she heard from the pink-haired boy last night was true and she really had powers akin to those of him, oh, what she would give to scorch this person to the ground, burn the ashes and the ashes of the ashes until nothing remained. Not even one molecular remain of this infuriating person.

"Just wanted to know if he went to kinder with us… he looks like an old friend I had, that's all." The intruder spoke the truth and turned around, walking towards the exit of the park with the smile in place. Oh, but it stopped before getting too far, looking over its shoulder and long, white hair to say a few more words. "It's a shame you don't remember him, Erza… it really is."

And with that said, the intruder left, humming a soft, merry tune to itself along the way.

Leaving one puzzled red-haired girl behind staring at its back.

' _Remember him? But I've never-"_

"… _so you don't remember me, huh?"_

'… _this is the second time I hear this.'_ Erza, now sporting a very bewildered gaze, shifted her eyes from the exit of the park to the groaning youngster a few steps away from her. Watching with rapt attention every single of his movements to try and confirm if his persona sparked any bulbs in her mind or not. _'From where am I supposed to know this guy!? I've never seen him before!'_

"… _and found out your power was sealed inside your soul…!"_

'… _could that have something to do with my lack of memory of him?'_ Taking on a pensive pose, with a hand supporting her head by the chin and another hand supporting the first arm, the red-haired girl ignored the protests coming from the now-awake pink-haired youngster and thought about the matter slowly. The last thing she needed was to faint again and leave this clue slip away from her grasp. _'Come to think of it… there have been many people bothering me in the chats about me not remembering them when I don't even recall adding them to my friend list.'_

' _The hell is up with her!?'_ Natsu gritted his teeth together at being so blatantly ignored. His face was hurting, his nose was bleeding, he was knocked out while giving the explanation that was asked of him and now the girl had the gall to ignore him to think about some stupid thing he couldn't fathom; it was all unfair to him. "Hey! You listenin' to me, you dumb broad!? Why the fuck did you punch me in the face!?"

A glare that could equal a God's wrath suddenly fell on him and shut him up.

" _What did you say?"_ Erza asked slowly, with an icy glare and voice to add more effect. She was very concentrated on the matter of not remembering who the pink-haired guy was but that didn't mean her senses were completely shut off. Her ears were still listening to everything that gave off sound around her. "I believe I told you to stop cursing too, didn't I?"

Unfortunately, Natsu didn't count on that.

"We will discuss this matter at my place." Said the vexed red-haired girl as she dragged a beaten up Natsu by the back of his collar, up the street and towards the house she shared with her parents, whom, if she was lucky enough, were not going to be there at the moment. "Mom and dad are probably out for work so no one will disturb us."

"…I'm regretting this already, Ol'man Rob…"

"What was that?"

"I can't wait 'till we get there! Oh boy, I can't wait!"

"Good."

 **To be continued.**


	6. Heritage

**Disclaimer: Perhaps… I own something? Nah, I don't.**

* * *

 **Birth of the Titania**

 **Chapter 6: Heritage**

* * *

 _I.-.-.I Scarlet's Home I.-.-.I_

 _I.-.-.I Midday I.-.-.I_

Not the most striking house of the neighborhood nor the most unattractive, that's what Natsu thought once he laid eyes on the so called home of his short-tempered friend while ignoring the throbbing pains assaulting his head, face and upper torso. A simple two-story home with no distinguishable signs to it. Of visible kind, that is.

' _This place is full of seals… even the grass and the street in front of it.'_ The youngster couldn't hide his frown at the piece of work the Elders did with the place. A through and through work that left nothing to complain. If you were in favor of holding someone prisoner for the rest of its life, of course. But since the pink-haired boy was against it, all he could think of was… _'Once she knows, I'll make sure to get rid of every single seal plaguing this damn house, Ol'man Rob likes it or not.'_

"Be quiet just in case, if my parents are around, you better hide the fastest you can." Erza explained before opening the front door of the house, giving an extremely serious look to the pink-haired trailing behind her. Yet it looked like her words went from one ear to the other. The young man was not even looking at her, instead frowning at everything around them. "Hey! Are you listening to me?"

Natsu looked at her with a calm expression, still frowning, but calm. "Where's your room's window?"

The red-haired girl raised an eyebrow in question. Why the need to ask for that now of all times? "It's at the back of the house, left side, second floor… but why do you-?"

"Hold tight." The youngster hugged her by the waist and made sure to hold her steadily, despite her flustered complains and punches for him to let go of her. He ignored it all, adjusted her body so that she was under his left arm and looked up, seeing a medium-sized trim coming out at the height that separated one floor from the other, he used it as medium to reach his real target. And for that, he needed to jump beyond the limits of a simple human. "Here… we… go!"

"W-what are you doing!?" Erza could only scream in fright at what the young man did. In one second they were at ground level, with her demanding him to let go, and the next, he jumped, used the exterior trim of the house as a mean to go even higher. Namely the roof. If she said she believed what happened just now, she would be lying. Same if she said she wasn't shocked about it all. "H-how did you do that!?"

"A wizard did it." Natsu replied cockily, sending a shit-eating grin to the girl under his arm that almost –and I remark almost- made her blush in embarrassment. He gave some steps forward and walked towards the left side of the house while explaining. "That's part of our heritage, y'know? Being flashy, do amazing tricks, pulverize things with a punch… and you'll be part of it soon enough."

He looked down now, wondering how to enter the room that belonged to the scarlet-haired girl without breaking the window or his cargo. He could always use one of the things he learned while training but he doubted the girl could stand it without fainting… again. So a more reasonable option was in order.

"I always leave the window close before going to school… but mom always opens it because she says it's important to ventilate the house once a day." Erza told him begrudgingly, figuring out what was going through his mind by just seeing the situation they were in. _'If anyone see us like this…! I hope he moves fast or else I'll…!'_

Poke.

"Oi, Erza? You there?" A slight poke to her forehead made her return to reality, namely her room, with her sitting comfortably in the middle of her bed. Natsu was just a few centimeters away from her, luckily, his face wasn't, but he was indeed poking her forehead to call for her attention. How did he make it so that she didn't notice them entering the place? No gravity changes, no sudden movements, no sense of speed being raised and halted. She blinked in complete astonishment. "Okay… I'll take that as a yes."

The youngster moved back and, instead of taking the desk chair nearby, sat on the carpeted floor of the room.

He did say something about liking the ground better, didn't he?

Oh, he cleared his throat with some coughs.

It almost made him look important… if not because he almost choked on his third cough.

"U-urgh… last time I try to look smart… okay, listen!" Pulling a sketching book and some pens from his backpack, which Erza couldn't even tell how he handled with all the movements they did back there, Natsu started to draw a few things to make the explanation easier this time. Two failures taught him that it was better to take it slow instead of pushing the big stuff right in front of anyone's face. More so if the person was prone to fainting. "Wizards are real, we have powers, we do flashy things, we can even use the elements at times… that if we train enough or are talented."

' _D-do I have to nod?'_ Still dazed about the previous occurrence, the girl nodded dumbly when the boy looked at her for permission to continue. _'After that back there, I'm willing to listen whatever he wants to say.'_

"Good, then… wizards aren't really that abundant now but I heard we were many back in the day… about millions of us that were capable of using cool tricks that went from making things move with the mind to using fire to fight!" At that last part, Natsu grinned mischievously as if hiding something incredible from the girl before her. To that, Erza only tilted her head to the side, not following the gesture or what it implied. "We were also organized and had something like guilds and more to keep us all together working in one place… but that's for another day."

' _Telekinesis? Pyrokinesis? Sounds more like a bunch of people capable of using their minds to the fullest instead of wizards…'_ Disbelief is not something that can be shaken off easily, even if proof is shown… three times.

"The issue today is you and how the current organization decided to deal with your case… and mine too." Natsu turned around the sketchbook and showed Erza a very detailed, and very badly drawn, board that showed the current standing of the wizards in the modern day. "Right now, the legal wizards follow the ruling of the Elders… those are eight old farts that are the most powerful in the world… or so I've heard… and they handle the cases of every single wizard in the world."

' _Elders, eight, strongest, they lead…'_ Erza nodded dumbly again, still trying to catch up to all the information thrown at her. If only the pink-haired brat could notice her struggling and let some space in the explanation for her to ask a few questions. "U-uh… okay…?"

"They were the ones to order the sealing of your power… and your memories too." That made the girl's eyes react and her mind click everything into place. The young man also looked different at the mention of the subject. Not like her, no, he looked more enraged. "Every single memory that reminded you of me or the others was sealed off together with your powers."

' _T-they did that? H-how? Why!?'_ Disbelief, understanding, confusion… this seemed like a good day for an emotional rollercoaster.

"Okay, maybe it was really for the better and your safe initiation was a higher priority than you remembering any of us… but still…" Natsu sighed and dropped the sketchbook in his hands, withdrawing them to scratch the back and top of his head in frustration. "Argh! I just hate it that they didn't told us anything until after the sealing was complete! Fuckin' ol'farts! If only I was there-!"

"W-wait! Go back a little!" Erza called out urgently, feeling like she had to listen more about this specific subject if she wanted to get those memories the intruder and the pink-haired exchange student were talking about. "What's this of an initiation and about it being higher priority?"

"…uh?" Tilting his head in puzzlement at the questions, Natsu nodded slowly and took the sketchbook in his hands again, turning to the next page and showing a rough image that looked like Erza surrounded by many chains in one side while the other showed a mass of color with no definite shape. "An Initiation is the step-up a young wizard has to go through in order to access the full capacity of its abilities, that's what Ol'man Gil said to me."

The girl nodded quickly this time, her mind working faster now that the subject was of her interest.

More like, even though both were personal subjects for her, this one took precedence.

"But, sometimes a young wizard reaches the time of its Initiation with more power than it should… that's an anomaly and they have ways to deal with them." The pink-haired youngster gritted his teeth in restrained anger again. "For me it was a simple sealing… when I was about ten years old."

' _Ten? That young?'_ Be so dangerous that the most important wizards would deem necessary to seal his powers at such a young age? She didn't understand why the young man was mad about it. What if he lost control and harmed someone? Or worse, harmed himself?

"And yours was the night of your eighteenth birthday a couple months ago." Erza's eyes widened, she knew not if it was from surprise or shock. Natsu looked down and shook his head, muttering something to himself before inhaling a large amount of air to continue like nothing. "What I was told was that your power was equal or greater than mine and some other wizards like us… but somehow, it took longer for it to react and when it did, it started to wreak havoc with your body, making a normal Initiation impossible."

'… _so much power? And from his words it wasn't even stable.'_ She still had some questions about it, but the problem before her eyes was more important. What she had been feeling and witnessing since meeting this young man of pink hair. _'If it was like that, why is he so mad about the Elders saving me from myself? I could've died if it weren't for them.'_

"If you're wondering what I think you are, then allow me to explain." A new voice joined their conversation and it came from the open window behind Erza. "Of course, if you don't have a problem with me doing so, Natsu."

"I do have a problem, thank you." Natsu answered with his expression still sour, turning to gaze at some random point in the room with his arms crossed instead of thinking about the sealing of his friend's memories any longer. _'Shitty ol'farts and their shitty rules.'_

"W-wait a second!" Erza jumped from her bed and turned around to face the intruder in her room, who was no other than the same one she met at the park earlier. Blue eyes, long white hair, sickeningly sweet smile. Why was she here? "What're you doing here, Mira!?"

"Oh my, Erza~! You look so adorable when you're flustered, y'know?" Mirajane Strauss, a fellow student of Rosemary High, was crouching on top of the window's railings, giggling madly at the expression of anger, shock and surprise the scarlet-haired girl was now sporting. "I was by the neighborhood and thought of dropping by to check how Natsu was doing… you do know you're a little slow in the uptake, don't you?"

If Erza's face could get any redder, it probably would have by now. "Shut up, you she-devil!"

' _Bullseye! And she doesn't even know all the details yet.'_ Mira grinned mischievously, much like Natsu did earlier, at the name Erza gave her. It was amusing every time the same happened, no matter who the person was giving a spot-on nickname like that. She had to chuckle and tease her a bit more as reward for that. "Oh, maybe I misjudged you… looks like you can do better when you want to."

Maybe she should give a small demonstration too?

"Save it, Mira… we don't need her fainting again." Natsu said aloud to the grinning beauty by the window, giving her a bored look with a hidden message Erza couldn't crack up no matter how she looked or thought about it. What were these two talking so secretly about? Plus, she only fainted twice! Thrice if they counted the shock of earlier that morning at seeing herself in the mirror with all those scales… but they didn't need to know about that! "If Ol'man Rob sent you, then help me or get out of the way… I'm in a bad mood right now."

"I know, don't worry… just felt like a bit of teasing would help in relieving the tense atmosphere." The white-haired beauty shrugged and hopped off the railing to land softly on the bed. She accommodated the edges of her skirt and sat like a lady. All while ignoring the fuming red-head to the side. She rested a finger on her lower lip and looked up cutely. All faked to annoyed, of course. "Okay… explaining things to a thick-headed person like Erza… how is it done I wonder?"

' _Couldn't wait until later, could you now?'_ Natsu sighed and shook his head in disbelief.

As for Erza…

"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

…she started cursing, oh joy.

 **To be continued.**

* * *

 **A/N: Three chapters more out of my very lazy mind... I tell you, being bombarded with assignments and having to write essays makes writing for FF a real pain in the ass. It almost feels like a chore or worse, like I'm being taken to death row. *sighs* Anywho, enjoy the chapters until I come up with something else for the others. Also, excuse me if the quality dropped somehow... I really am not at my best.**


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